Woman at the Entrance to a Box in the Theatre
Amy Schreibman Walter
(Toulouse Lautrec painting, 1889)
Ballerina, erased.
He recycled only this canvas.
Yellow shoes cover up pink flats -
rock crushes paper.
Kitten heels make marks,
kitten heels circumvent centuries.
She went to him in the box -
revealing her ankles.
Ballerina, banished.
Replacement of red hair,
piled high above her neckline
in the direction
of the magnificent ceiling.
Amy Schreibman Walter's poems, articles and essays have appeared widely on both sides of the Atlantic, and her chapbook, Houdini's Wife and Other Women, is available from Dancing Girl Press. Follow her on Twitter @amyswalter.